By Dan Plouffe
RA Centre badminton players Alex Bruce and Andrew D’Souza took silver medals in back-to-back mixed doubles and men’s singles championship games at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games Thursday afternoon, ending their respective streaks of three and five consecutive victories to reach the finals.
“The medal feels great; the colour feels like I want a different one right now,” said Bruce, who also earned bronze in women’s doubles earlier this week in Markham. “But I’m really, really happy to get another medal and I’m pretty happy with the way I played all week.”
Along with partner Toby Ng, Bruce rallied from 20-16 down for a comeback 23-21 second-set win against USA before a 12-21 loss in the deciding set, while D’Souza fell 13-21, 14-21 to Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon.
“I’m pretty happy overall with my performance,” indicated D’Souza, who downed a Cuban opponent ranked 159 places higher than him in the world rankings to reach the final. “It’s exciting to get Canada on the podium.”
Water polo bronze for Titans trio
After a tough 9-8 semi-final loss to USA that kept them from earning an Olympic berth, Ottawa Titans-brewed players Alec Taschereau, John Conway and Dusan Aleksic rebounded for a 16-8 victory to win men’s water polo bronze on Wednesday evening in Markham.
“No one really wants to play that game, but you have to, and it’s an important one,” signalled Conway, who scored four goals in the bronze match, while Taschereau had three, and Aleksic played in goal. “You’re still representing your country and it’s for a bronze medal at the Pan American Games, so we just tried to find some fight in us to get up and do the job.”
Tennis player Gabriela Dabrowski collected her second medal in as many days at York University, earning women’s doubles gold with partner Carol Zhao a day after taking silver in mixed doubles with Andrew Bester.
“I’m glad that I was able to fulfill expectations,” Dabrowski stated.
Squash player Sam Cornett assured herself of a third medal of the Games by advancing to the women’s team final, which goes Friday evening at Exhibition Place.
Look for more detailed coverage in August’s Ottawa Sportspage newspaper.
Check out more photos from Sportspage photographer Steve Kingsman http://stevekingsman.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Toronto-Pan-Am-Games-2015/C0000RjOJ9eEDQHU here.